Saudi Arabia starts Ramadan on Wednesday, but many others to begin a day later

Saudi Arabia and a handful of other Muslim-majority countries are starting Ramadan on Wednesday, while several others will begin the next day. 

Muslims follow the lunar calendar, which consists of 12 months lasting between 29 and 30 days. The start of the fasting month of Ramadan depends on the sighting of the crescent moon.

Saudi authorities said on Tuesday evening that the moon had been spotted by their teams, and therefore the fasting month would begin on Wednesday. 

The UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Yemen and Palestine announced that they would commence on Wednesday too. Sunni religious authorities in Iraq and Lebanon also said Ramadan was beginning that day.

A string of other Muslim-majority countries said they would begin on Thursday, having not sighted the moon, including Egypt, Brunei, Malaysia, Turkey, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Jordan, Syria and Oman.

The office of Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the most senior Shia authority in Iraq, said Ramadan will start on Thursday.

Iran, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan will make announcements on Wednesday as to whether Ramadan will begin on Thursday or Friday.

Spotting the crescent moon

For years, Saudi Arabia - home to Islam’s holiest sites - has reported some of its sightings of the crescent moon on days when scientists and astronomers insisted it would be impossible to see it. Saudi authorities have not addressed these criticisms.

Saudi Arabia uses a calendar called the Umm al-Qura, which is based on calculations and marks key dates years in advance. For this year’s Ramadan, the calendar had marked it as starting on Wednesday 18 February. 

Earlier this month in the UAE, the Sharjah Academy for Astronomy, Space Sciences and Technology (SAASST) at the University of Sharjah announced that it would be scientifically impossible to sight the crescent moon on Tuesday 17 February - even using new technology.

The SAASST had said the first day of Ramadan would be Thursday 19 February.

Separately, Abu Dhabi-based astronomer Mohammad Odeh, director of the International Astronomical Centre in Abu Dhabi and the Islamic Crescents Observation Project, has said that the moon will not be visible on Tuesday in the UAE or Saudi Arabia.

"Such reports, if they do occur, definitively confirm the error some individuals may make in mistakenly believing they have sighted a crescent moon that is not present in the sky," Odeh said.

The UAE and many other Muslim-majority countries, especially in the Gulf region, customarily follow Saudi Arabia's lead with its moon-sightings.

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Despite the comments from Emirati experts about the impossibility of a sighting, the UAE announced Ramadan for Wednesday. 

Many experts had predicted that Saudi Arabia would declare Ramadan beginning on Wednesday regardless, as they have often announced sightings in previous years despite astronomers insisting the moon was not visible.

Imad Ahmed, founder and director of the New Crescent Society, an astronomy society that specialises in the Islamic calendar in the UK, runs an astronomy programme with the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. 

"On Tuesday 17 February 2026, the crescent moon is astronomically impossible to see, whether by high powered telescopes or by the unaided eye anywhere in the Middle East - indeed, in the whole of Asia, Africa, or Europe," he told Middle East Eye last week. 

His Majesty’s Nautical Almanac Office in the UK, a government body that produces astronomical data, said the moon would not be visible in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. 

However, in countries without official moon-sighting bodies, like the UK, many Muslims also follow Saudi Arabia’s lead, although some religious scholars in the Gulf kingdom have urged people elsewhere not to do so.

Increasing numbers of British Muslims are opting for local moon sightings. Ahmed’s New Crescent Society carries out sightings across the country and aims to gather support for a unified Islamic calendar for Britain.